Metal railroad-tie.



PATENTED SEPT. 8, 1308-v G.HORRELL. METAL RAILROAD TIE.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 19,

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'Witnesss:

CHARLES HORRELL, OF MADISON, ILLINOIS.

METAL RAILROAD-TIE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 8, 1908.

Application filed September 19, 1907. Serial No. 393,641.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES I'IORRELL, a citizen of the United States,residing in Madison, in the county of Madison and State of Illinois,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in MetalRailroad-Ties, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to railroad ties and has for an object to provideimproved and efficient means for securing a railroad rail to a metaltie.

In the use of metal railroad ties dilliculty has not only beenexperienced in fastening or looking the rail to the tie but also insecuring such fastening or locking device against accidentaldislodgment. The jar and vibration incident to the passage of trainscontinuously tends to loosen and displace the fastenings which areemployed to lock the rail and tie. The present improvement is not onlyfor the purpose of locking the rail and tie together I but also forsecuring the locking means against accidental displacement. Thisimproved fastening device is capable of being readily tightened fromtime to time as occasion may demand and also aifords means for effectingthe lateral justification of the rails for bringing these into properparallel relation.

In the drawings accompanying and forming a part of this specification,Figure 1 shows in side elevation a practicable embodiment of a form ofmy improved tie and fastening device applied to rails which are seen incross section, the rail which is shown at the right hand end of the tienot being represented as being fastened in position. Fig. 2 is a topplan View of the parts shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is an enlargedperspective view of the end portion of a tie provided with my improvedfastening device and shows a portion of the rail in position; and Fig. 1is a perspective of one of the fastening devices disassembled from thetie and rail.

This present device is somewhat in the nature of an improvement upon themetallic tie which is covered by United States Letters Patent No.821,166 issued to me May 22nd, 1906.

The body portion of the tie is designated in a general way by 5. Suchtie is shown as having a narrow central portion 6 and wide end portions7 which end portions are hollow for the purpose of engaging the roadbedand becoming filled with the ballast Which will hold the tie firmly inposition. 011

each end portion there is provided an upstanding rail seat 8 upon whicha rail 9 is shown as seated. It will be observed that the seat 8 is of aless dimension than the width of the base 10 of the rail. At each sideof the rail seat there is provided an offset lug 11 having an inclinedface 12, which inclined faces are directed toward the rail seat and aredisposed at a slight angle thereto.

The rail after it has been placed upon the rail seat will be locked tothe tie by means of suitable wedges. wedges is shown detached anddesignated in a general way by 13. It has a face 14 which will engagethe top face 15 of the rail base and a face 16 which will engage theface 12 of the offset lug. The wedge also has a face 17 which engagesthe web portion 18 of the rail. The angular inclination of the faces 12will preferably be in opposite direction so that when the wedges arebeing driven into position, force may be applied to the wedges inopposite directions transversely of the tie; as for instance, by theemployment of two hammers striking in o posite directions which willprevent latera movement of the tie, that is movement longitudinally ofthe rail. Further by making these faces in the manner above referred to,the wedges may all be made the same so that a wedge that will lit uponone side of the rail will also fit upon the other, which would not bethe case were the wedges both required to be inserted from the same sideof the tie. The wedge is also provided with a channel 19 for receivingthe edge of the rail base 10.

The wedges illustrated herein will afford a firm and efiicient holdingor locking device between the rail and tie; but owing to the jarring ofthe rails incident to the passage of locomotives and trains and alsoincident to conditions arising through changes in temperature, thewedges are apt to Work loose, but by efi icient means for fasteningthese wedges against accidental dislodgment the locking will be renderedmost secure; and to this end the lugs 11 are provided with openings 20extending transversely of the tie. Each of the wedges is provided with awing 21 having an opening 22 adapted, when the wedge is in position, toregister with the bolt hole 20 of the lug. After the wedge has beenplaced in position and driven in with sufficient tightness to hold therail in position, a bolt 23 may be passed through the bolt holes 20, 22and the nut 24 may be secured upon In Fig. 4 one of these such bolt.This will prevent the wedge working loose. It will thus be a simplematter when the track-walker finds that, owing to wear or conditions oftemperature, the wedges need tightening, to drive the wedge further intoposition to tighten the nut upon the bolt. The wings 21 constitute headsas it were for the wedgeswhich will afiord an enlarged surface forreceiving a hammer blow in tightening the wedges and the wing will be inposition to prevent the hammer blow stri ing the lugs 11. These wedgesupon opposite sides of the rail being independently adjustable, willafford means whereby the rails may be adjusted and justified laterallyfor the purpose of effecting true parallelism of the rails or for thepurpose of increasing or decreasing the distance between the rails.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:'

1. A metal railroad tie formed at each end with a rail seat, a lug uponeach side of said adapted to be driven underneath said lugs and eachformed with a groove for engaging the side of the rail base and meansfor engaging the tie and wedge for securing such wedge in position.

2. A metal tie formed at each end with a rail seat, a lug u on eachsideof said rail seat and provided with a wedge engaging face directedtoward said rail seat, said faces upon opposite sides of the railbeinginclined at opposite angles to the rail seat, wedges adapted to bedriven underneath said lugs from 0p 0- site sides of the tie, said lugsbeing providbd with bolt holes disposed transversely of the tie and saidwedges each carrying a wing and rovided with a bolt hole registeringwith the bolt hole in the lug and a bolt for traversing each of saidbolt holes for securing the wedge in position.

CHARLES I-IORRELL.

Witnesses:

M. F. SULLIVAN, JEFF PURoELL.

